---
title: These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching away his dinner,… — Tanglewood Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching away his dinner, and allowed him no peace of his life. Who acts: ugly wretches, habit. A sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece., part 3, sentence 54

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These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching away his dinner, and allowed him no peace of his life.

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**Who acts:** ugly wretches, habit · **What happens:** be, snatch away, allow, pacify · **To what, where:** habit, dinner, peace, king, life

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This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Golden Fleece., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ugly wretches, habit), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg976:27:54
# text = These ugly wretches were in the habit of snatching away his dinner, and allowed him no peace of his life.
1	These	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	ugly	ugly	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	wretches	wretch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	habit	habit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
8	of	of	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	snatching	snatch	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	7	acl	_	_
10	away	away	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	dinner	dinner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	allowed	allow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	18	det	_	_
18	peace	peace	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | this ugly wretches |  |  | the habit |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **snatch away** | gerund | the habit *not said here* | king's dinner |  |  |  | away *property* | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dinner=Theme |
| 3 | **allow** | past | this ugly wretches *not said here* | no peace of king's life | king |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent he=Goal peace=Theme |
| 4 | **pacify** |  |  | king's life |  |  |  |  | nom peace «state transitive»: of=patient |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Project Gutenberg book 976 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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